Multicylinder four-cycle explosion-engine



C. A. S. HANSON.

MULTlCYLINDER FOUR-CYCLE EXPLOSION ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 2. 1919.

1,391,473, PatentedSept. 20, 1921.

WITNESSES UNITED STATES PAT/ENT OFFICE.

CLINTON ADOLPH SUEL HANSON, 01' BARB/ON, WISCONSIN.

MULTICYLINDEB FOUR-CYCLE EXPLOSION -E.NGINE specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept. 20, 1921 Application filed May 2, 1919. Serial No. 294,184.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CLINTON ADOLPH SUnL HANSON, a citizen of the United States, residin at Barron, in the county of Barron and tate of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Multicylinder Four-Cycle Explosion-Engine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to multicylinder four cycle explosion engines, wherein governing of the engine is on the hit-andmiss principle, and its object is to provide means whereby, during the governlng period, an explosive charge is maintained in the cylinders ready for firing as soon as the governing period ends. This is advantageous in that, during the entire govermng period, the charge is maintained in a highly gaseous condition and makes up, in whole or in part, the first charge to be fired in the multi-cylinder engine after the governing period. The arrangement is such that not only is the explosive charge greatly agitated and thereby rendered more highly efiicient, but there is no waste of fuel or loss of power due to a number of successive compressions.

In accordance with the invention a bypass is provided between two cylinders of a twin cylinder engine, or between the cylinders of each pair in an engine having two or more pairs of cylinders. The arrangement may be so timed that the valve or valves controlling the by-pass are open at substantially the time when one cylinder of a pair has just finished the intake of a charge and its mate has finished the exhaust, and the closing of th valves is caused a certain number of cycles later, say four or eight cycles, so that the firing operations are resumed with the pistons in the same relative positions that they ceased to act. During the time that no firing occurs the charge is pumped back and forth between the two cylinders, thus preparing it for instant firing.

The invention is particularly adapted to having the by-pass or transfer passage partly or wholly surrounded by the exhaust pipe or duct, therebypreventing the cooling of the charge which is characteristic of the hit-and-miss type of governing. Because of these features, an engine equipped with the invention may successfully use heavy fuels like kerosene, even on light loads, and the fewer explosions that occur in a given time mean a greater number of transfers from one cylinder to the other, whereby the fuel 18 heated to an advantageous temperature and the fuel and air of the charge are thoroughly intermixed.

The invention will be best understood from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, with the understanding, however, that the invention is not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of the drawing, but may be changed and modilied so long as such changes and modifications mark no material departure from the salient features of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a vertical section through an upright engine of the hit-and-miss type and having the invention applied.

Fig. 2 is a more or less schematic view showing the hit-and-miss governor and associated parts.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown an explosion engine A having twin cylinders 1 and 2. h engine is shown as of the upright type and is therefore provided with a base 3, but it is to be understood that the engine may equally as well be of the horizontal type. While the engine is shown as provided with twin cylinders it is to be understood that four, or six, or more cylinders arranged in pairs, may be employed. Since the operation of the engine is substantially the same whether the cylinders be two cylinders or multiple of two, in the following description it will be considered that the engine has but a single pair of cylinders.- Within th cylinders 1- and'2 are pistons i and 5 of customary type and these pistons are connected by piston rods 6 to the cranks 7 of a crank shaft 8 suitably journaled in the base 3. Mounted on the crank shaft 8 are fly wheels 9. The engine is shown as provlded with a cylinder head 10 in which are intake and exhaust ports 11 and 12 respectively, but as these features do not form part of the invention no particular showing or description thereof is deemed necessary. The ports 11 and 12 are provided with intake valves 13 and exhaust valves 14-which may be of the customary character.

Opening into the cylinders 1 and 2, 1n the explosion chamber 15, 16 respectively, and these ports are joined y a duct 17 through which one port co nends thereof, are ports municates with the other, the duct having no other outlet than the and hence are each provided with'a spring 20 for the purpose, said springs surrounding the valve stems 21 of the valves 15 and 16.

Both valves may be under the control of a bridge piece 22 carried by a lever 23 suitabl mounted,-say on the cylinder head 10, an this lever, at the end remote from the bridge piece 22, is connected to a push'rod 24 extendin through a guide 25 on; a bracket 26 w ich may be cast or secured on one of the cylinders of the engine or on some part of the frame of the engine.

In the particular showing ing, the crank shaft 8 carries a pinion.27 meshing with a gear wheel 28 suitably mounted on the en 'ne and in turn carrying a cam 29 provided with a cam recess 29. The bracket 26 is shown as provided with a journal bearing 30 carrying a shaft 31, on one end of wh1ch there is secured .a

. pinion 32 meshing with the gear wheel 28,

while the other end-of the shaft carries a collar 33 with diametrically opposite posts 34 thereon. In each post 34 there is ournaled an an le arm 35 terminating at one end in a ball or weight 36 and at the other end in an angle extension 37. The two extensions 37 are pivoted to a rod 38-extending through the shaft 31 and slidingly connected to the push rod 24. In the path of the end of the rod 24 adjacent to the rod 38 there is a nose projection 39 into and out of the path of which the push rod 24 is movable by the rod 38, which latter is under the control of the levers 35 and weights 36, the latter bein connected together by a spring 40 or 05181 yieldable device. I he nose 39 is carried by a slide 41 mounted for reciprocation through a bearing 42 carried by a bracket 43 made fast to the engine frame. At the end of the slide 41 remote I from the nose 39 there is a friction roller larly when running at a speed above the normal s ed of the engine, the weights 36 sprea apart in opposition to the spring 40 and thereby draw t 6 end of the push rod 24 adjacent to the governor into the path of the nose 39. On the next forward movement of the slide 41 the end of the push rod .24, then of the drawand 19 open.

in the path of the nose 139, .is engaged and the valves 18 and 19 are opened, whereby the interiors of .the cylinders are placed in communication so that, assuming that one piston, say thepiston 5, has completed or about completed the intake stroke, and the other p1ston,. say the piston 4, has about completed the scavenging stroke, the next forward movement of the piston 4 will not draw in a fresh charge by the regular intake valve but will drawin through the duct 17 the charge already in the cylinder 2. As the reciprocations of the pistons continue, the

charge originally drawn in by the-piston 5 passes back and forth between the cylinders 1 and-2, because of the easy path for gases thus provided. This 'agitates the charge,

thereb causing a very thorough mixture.

and a so very thoroughly atomizing and gasi fying the fuel of the charge. The surglng of the gases between the two cylinders continues so long as the speed of the engine is high enough to hold the nose 39 in engagement with the push rod 24, with the consequent holding open of the valves-18 and 19. The momentary dropping of the roller 41 into the notch 29 is of no moment, since the very brief closing of the valves 18 and 19, if it occurs at all,.has no appreciable effect, since by far the greater part of the rotation of the cam 29 holds-the valves 18 As soon as the speed drops the action of the governor is to move the push rod 24 out of the path of the nose 39, whereupon, the push rod being 'no longer held bythe nose 39,- returns to its first position under the action of the springs 20 and the valves 18 and 19 are closed, thereby shutting off communication between the two cylinders, whereupon, the

next stroke of one of the pistons constitutes the compression stro e, and the charge being in an ideal condition for firing, is i nited and an explosion takes lace to be ollowed by other ex losions in t e regular course of running 0 the engine.-

The hit-and-miss governor shown in the drawing is to be taken as indicative of any hit-and-miss governor without limitation to the particular structureillustrated. In a multl-cylinder four cycle engine of the hitand-miss type, when one piston of a pair is moving toward the crank shaft its mate is movin away from the crank shaft, whether the cylinders of a pair be arranged side by side or in tandem, or otherwise.

The movement of the governor is so timed thatwhen the governin period ceases and the transfer valves are c osed the engine will resume operations of firing with the pistons in practically the same relative positions they were at the beginning of the verning period. The exhaust valve operatmg means need not differ from the usual form except that they may be arranged to remain in the inoperative closed position when the transfer valves are in the open pos1t1on. en electric ignition is employed the hlt-andmiss governor may be arranged to break the circuit while the transfer valves are open.

In order to accomplish the breaking of the circuit, which may be considered as including the ordinary electric ignition system, not shown inthe drawings, there is provided a contact 45 (see Fig. 2,) carried by that part of the engine supporting the arm 23, and the latter is provided with a contact terminal 46. The contact 45 is suitably insulated, and supported by a clamp 45. 1he arm or lever 23 carries the contact 46 into and out of engagement with the contact 45, and one lead 47 of the ignition circuit is at tached to the contact 45, while the other lead 48 may be secured to any desired part of the frame of the engine 1, say, for instance, the head 10, shown in Fig. 2.

When the engine is running, and the speed of the engine '18 such that the hit-and-miss governor is out of commission, the contacts 45 and 46 are in engagement, where they remain until excessive speed is reached, whereupon the push rod 24 is brought into the path of the nose 39, and the bypass 17 is again opened, whereupon the hit-and-miss governor again functions, and at the same time breaks the ignition circuit between the terminal leads 47 and 48. The breakage of the circuit is maintained so long as the bypass 17 remainsopen despite a momentary closing of the valves due to the dropping of the roller 44 into the recess 29. When, however, the speed of the engine has dropped and the projection 39 is moved out of the path of the rod 24, the valves 18 and 19 are permitted to close, thus closing the bypass 17, and the. contacts 45 and 46 are brought together, thus permitting the normal operation of the ignition circuit and the normal action of the engine.

Various adjustments may be made so that the amount of charge in a pair of cylinders,

when the transfer valves close, may be regulated so that one cylinder may have a full charge and the other practically none, up to a position where both cylinders may have practically equal charges.

With the invention, one disadvantage of the hit-and-miss type of governing explosion engines is avoided in that the cylinders do not become cool while the hit-and-miss governor is operating, as is the case with other hit-and-miss types of governors which operate by opening the exhaust valve to the atmosphere, whereby air at atmospheric temperature is pumped into and out of the cylinders. With the invention such condi tion does not occur, since the same charge passes back and forth between the cylinders and the heat of the cylinders is thereby conserved, warming up the charge to an advantageous temperature. Because of the fact that the charge is kept in the cylinders during the governing period, it is maintained in ahighly vaporized condition by the transferring action and is therefore sure to fire when the governing period ceases.

Moreover, heavy fuels, like kerosene, may

be'successfully used in the hit-and-miss type of engines even on light loads, since the fewer the number of explosions which takes place in a given time the greater is the number of transfers between the cylinders.

What is claimed is:--

1. A multi-cylinder explosion engine having means for establishing communication between the interiors of the cylinders, and a hit-and-miss governor for opening said means of communication during the governing period.'

2. A hit-and-miss multi-cylinder explosion engine having inlet and exhaust valves for each cylinder, means other than the said valves for establishing communication between the interiors of the cylinders, and means under the control of the hit-and-miss governor for opening said means of communication during the governing period.

3. A hit-and-miss multi-cylinder explosion engine provided with means distinct from the valves for placing the explosion chambers of the cylinders in communication and the governor timed in action to cause the connection of the cylinders when one of the cylinders contains an explosive charge, whereby, during the governing period, the charge is caused to surge back and forth between the cylinders.

4. A multi-cylinder hit-and-miss governed explosion engine provided with inlet and exhaust valves and with a duct between the cylinders through which the latter may communicate, and valve means for the duct controlled by the governor to open during the governin period.

5. A multi-cy inder hit-and-miss governed explosion engine provided with inlet and exhaust valves and with a duct between the cylinders through which the latter may communicate, and valve means for the duct controlled by the governor to open during the governing period, said valve means and governor being timed to open communication between the cylinders when there is an explosive charge therein.

6. An explosion engine comprising a pair of power cylinders having inlet and exhaust valves and normally closed means of communication therebetween and with thepistons in the cylinders reciprocating in alternation, and a hit-and-miss governor for the normally closed means rendered active by the attainment by the engine of a speed above a predetermined limit, to open the means of communication for the surging of the contents of the cylinders back and forth d between them so long as the means of communication are open.

7 A multi-cylinder explosion engine comprising a pair of associated cylinders, with a duct extending between and openin at the endsinto the explosion chambers o the respective cylinders, whereb to provide communication between the cy inders, valves at the ends of the duct and-movable simultaneously from a normally closed to an open position and vice versa, and a hit-and-miss governor controlled by the engine 7 and in turn controlling the valves, whereby the duct is closed while the speed of the engine is below a predetermined minimum and the valves are opened to place the cylinders in communication on the engine attaining a supernormal speed. 7 y

8. A multi-cylinder explosion englne comprising a pair of cylinders provided with a duct leading between the explosion chamber ends of the cylinders and opening at the ends into said cylinders and'there provided with valve seats, a valve at each end of the duct, other valves communicating with each cylinder andconstitutingthe intake and exhaust valves of the cylinders, and a hit-andmiss governor connected to and simultaneously controlling the valves at the ends of the duct and operative on the attainment of the engine to a predetermined maximum speed, whereby to then open the duct to place the cylinders in free communication for the surging back and forth into and out of the cylinders through the duct of an explosive charge.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, -I have hereto aflixed my signature.

CLINTON ADOLPH SUEL HANSON.

Witnesses:

E. G. BROWN, A. W. JOHNSON. 

